Dana White says it’s not in Tony Ferguson’s best interest to fight right now

Tony Ferguson is not expected to be in the Octagon anytime soon according to UFC President, Dana White.

Ferguson, who is the former interim lightweight champion is currently in the midst of his own personal problems including his wife filing a restraining order against him.

“Police spoke to an unidentified female who stated Tony Ferguson had ‘not slept for three days and was tearing apart the home'” an excerpt from MMA Junkie explained. “And ‘broke apart the fireplace and believed someone placed a (computer) chip in his leg.’ An unidentified male who’d called the police said the fighter had told him ‘someone was inside his walls.’ Nearly two hours after the police made contact, Cristina Ferguson told police her husband’s trainer couldn’t get him to leave the house to see a doctor.”

Meanwhile, UFC lightweight contender Al Iaquinta was on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show on Monday and said he was offered a fight with Ferguson, but, the fight never came to fruition. That left Iaquinta wondering why they would even offer the fight. However, White addressed that and knows that Ferguson shouldn’t fight for the foreseeable future until he handles his personal issues first.

“Tony had hit me up after the Max Holloway fight went to [Dustin] Poirier and was saying, ‘What’s next for me?’” White said to Yahoo! Sports. “I said, ‘Well, we can get you a fight with Al Iaquinta.’ Reached out to Al, Al was interested in the fight. But the reality is that right now Tony has a lot of personal problems that he needs to deal with. I don’t think that putting him in a fight right now would be in his best interest. He needs to handle his personal stuff first.”

Ferguson last fought at UFC 229 where he beat Anthony Pettis by corner stoppage. The fight extended his winning streak to 11 and he still remains the top contender in the UFC lightweight division.

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 3/20/2019